Love in a Small Town
Love in a Small Town
By Wang Anyi
Translated by Eva Hung
1988;1990;1994
ix + 108 pages
ISBN 962-7255-03-3
Love in a Small Town is based on a true story which happened between a young man and a young girl of the Anhui performing arts troupe to which Wang Anyi belonged during the Cultural Revolution. But the story is also the author's personal exploration into human nature and human sexuality. Writing at a time when sex was still a taboo subject in China, Wang Anyi has shown uncommon courage as well as insight in her treatment of this tragic tale, acknowledging sexual love as a powerful force in human life.
This is the first volume of Wang's Love Trilogy. The second, Love on a Barren Mountain, is also available in English translation as a Renditions Paperback.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface — vii
Love in a Small Town — 1
Review(s)
Review(s)
'Wang Anyi is credited with creating fiction from a woman's point of view.'
—Choice
'… the human spirit of a writer like Wang Anyi is ultimately not cautious.'
—Russell McLeod in World Literature Today
'… affirmation of female sexuality … The author's keen observation of the psychosexual impulses of adolescents is engaging … help to change the general perception that contemporary Chinese literature is invariably dull'
—Sylvia Chan in The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs
-
AUTHOR(s)
Born in 1954 in Nanjing and brought up in Shanghai, Wang Anyi was sent down to Anhui in 1970 during the Cultural Revolution and was assigned to a local performing arts troupe as a cellist. In 1978 she returned to Shanghai, where she began her career as a writer.
-
TRANSLATOR(s)
Eva Hung, the translator of this story as well as Love on a Barren Mountain, received her Ph.D. from the University of London. She studied classical Chinese dancing and ballet for ten years, and she plays the piano and the zheng, a Chinese stringed instrument.